Self- Evaluation

In your opinion, what are the most important skills for 21st Century learning?
technology usage, problem-solving, collaboration, self-motivation.

What are the most important technology skills to infuse into your learning environment? (Feel free to cite the NETS*S and/or the P21 Framework)
proper searching, the ability to distinguish good information from bad, collaboration, multiple types of presentations.

Tell some ways, via digital tools, you have learned to:
• Create/Innovate -Web 2.0 toos like, animoto, flickr, Voicethread
• Communicate/Collaborate - Notemesh, google docs, wiki
• Problem-Solve/Critically Think, etc… - google earth, blogger

Changes you can implement TODAY in your teaching (as a result of this class) (don’t necessarily have to be technology-related)
More project-oriented & group-oriented work, using blogs to discuss class topics.

Assess yourself and your learning journey this week. Did you…?
• Create more than you consumed?
No, I was introduced to many things, but need to spend more time with the application.
• Contribute to a collective/shared body of knowledge?
Yes, by posting & responding to blogs and contributing to class discussions.
• Participate in digital dialogue?
Yes, thru blogs.
• Use self-directed or discovery learning? (find some answers on your own)
Yes, by trying some of the Web 2.0 items we were introduced to.
Please try to give specific examples of all of the above.

Finally, did you “Think Different”?
Or, how has your thinking changed (if at all) as a result of taking this course?
Reading the information on Design helped me to focus on all the elements that go into a project or lesson. I will now try to see other aspects of design when creating lessons or projects for my students.

Design - Ch. 4

Design on the surface, to me, is just fluff. I use to equate design with the stereotypical "tree huggers" or overly arrogant with too much money. As I read and started to see design in terms of the things I am interested in, the concept suddenly becomes very interesting to me. When I see and old house I immediately start to remodel it in my mind. That's design. Everybody has interests, therefore everybody can design. We may need to redo the statement "I think, therefore I am" to "I design, therefore I am"!!!

Web 2.0 Promo-Notemesh

This is my promo for Notemesh

Blogger: www.notemesh.com/

Anti-Teaching

I would be lost in his classroom. I am an old school learner like he described. I want to sit in my desk near the back of the room and know exactly what is required of me for the class. I have gotten better but am easily frustrated when I have to figure things out on my own. What a tremendous sense of accomplishment his students would have at the end of the semester when the final project was finished.

Wednesday's Class

More info. WOW!! Voicethread was interesting and would be fun for certain things but I do not see a classroom application for me right now. Flat classroom would be awesome to try. I would like to ask that teacher if she has any extracurricular activities and how much time she spends outside of her classroom with this project. I was explaining this flat classroom to Liz Watson and Bergen Hesse and they thought it would be fun. From the outside looking in it is obvious that a lot of learning is going on and the students are very engaged in the project. From a teaching perspective, it seems like it would take a tremendous amount of time outside of the school day. I also need to spend some time on ali.apple.com. This seems a good website for teachers.

Teaching for Tomorrow - Ch. 1

This might be the single most important discussion or idea in education today. The NCLB legislation is pushing our education system in the exact opposite direction. As NCLB adds more and more standards that have to be assessed the harder it is to teach 21st Century Skills. I also liked the term "school skills". That is a perfect word. It is an accurate portrayal of what students need to do to be successful in school and not necessarily in the world.

Tuesday's Class

The discussion on 21st Century learning was very interesting. From the discussion, it seemed like we all agreed that change was needed but that finding a way to make it work would not be easy. The fact that we are all here trying to learn how to move in that direction says a lot about the type of teachers we have at O'Neill. Even terds like myself can learn and improve.

The Web 2.0 has an amazing amount of sites available. It is going to take some time to sort through it all and find what works for me.